Hello, Old Friend
by you.go.glenn.coco
Summary: She's staring at him now, jaw dropped, olive-green eyes shining in excitement. "It's you!" She seems entirely too happy, and Jack nearly falls out of the window. / Jack Frost pops in on Rapunzel, who apparently has learned absolutely nothing about Stranger Danger.
1. Chapter 1

The lizard is creepy. Seriously.

Jack watches it warily as he swiftly latches onto the windowsill, limbs deftly hoisting him so his legs dangle inside the tower but he's far enough out of the room that he can make a quick getaway should – well, who is he kidding? The only reason that he would need to do _that _is if the tiny, golden-haired girl's mother returns, and even then, she would have to actually be able to see him for Jack to be worried.

The lizard blinks its large, freakish eyes at him, which bothers Jack a lot more than it should because it's not like the reptile can actually see him and it's probably staring at a spot on the wall behind him, but Jack can't help but screw up his face in a horrible expression and stick out his tongue.

When the lizard quite _clearly _stiffens, so does Jack. His mouth relaxes and he's vaguely aware of the fact that his tongue is hanging out of his mouth much like a dog's and only when the lizard turns his back on Jack does he slip his tongue back into his mouth. But he still doesn't tear his eyes away from the creepy little animal, because then it's scampering down the wall and towards the little girl.

She's sitting in the middle of the room, back facing Jack, but Jack is tall enough to see that she's bent over something. The jars of paint gives Jack an idea as to what exactly it is. After all, she loves to paint. She's a creative little thing. Jack knows this because even though he's definitely _not _a stalker or a pedophile or even a creep of that sort he sometimes he drops in on her, but that's only because her mom constantly leaves her alone and – well, Jack feels kinda bad for her, too.

A fond smile quirks at Jack's mouth, and he gently places his staff against his knees, trying to crane his neck in order to see what the girl is drawing. He can't exactly see it, but he likes to pretend that it's something like the small pictures donning her walls already. Maybe she's drawing the floating lights. She likes those. It's all she ever talks about.

His gaze slides to the lizard again. It's trying to get her attention, and she's brushing him off with gentle annoyance and _"Not now, Pascal." _Apparently, "Pascal" doesn't like being ignored, because then it's climbing onto the girl's knee and glaring at her in a startlingly human-like manner and is it _pointing _at him?

Yup. It's pointing at him. Jeez, this reached a whole new level of freaky. Jack sighs, standing up and tapping his staff against his knees. He's turning around to leave because the lizard is honestly making his skin crawl but then he hears a squeal and that voice and the floorboards creaking as the little girl gets to her feet.

Jack looks over his shoulder. Maybe she stepped on Pascal.

Nope. She's staring at him now, jaw dropped, olive-green eyes shining in excitement.

But Jack's focused on her hair and all he can think about is how heavy that must be on her head. He never really noticed how long it was. Then again, he's never really seen her when she isn't painting something in the middle of her room.

"It's you!" She seems entirely too happy, and Jack nearly falls out of the window.

"I – what?" Great, Jack. Really intelligent.

"You! You're the boy that flies!" She bends down, her hair curtaining her from his view momentarily, before she straightens up with her drawings in her hand, hair literally dragging on the ground behind her. Jack doesn't know what to do as she rushes towards him, but thankfully, he doesn't have to do much thinking, because she's grabbing his hand and attempting to pull him inside her tower. He slowly drops from the ledge, feet landing on the floor beneath him.

"You can see me?"

She blinks her large eyes once, twice, three times. "Is that bad?"

She looks so genuinely terrified that she broke some unspoken rule that she's never heard of that Jack nearly laughs. Instead, he crouches down in front of her, shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it, kiddo." And that's all he says about the matter for now, because if he shows what he _really _feels and does flips all over the room, he would probably crash into the walls or break something. He's kind of an expert on destroying stuff.

Her chest heaves as she breathes out a sigh of relief, her pursed lips blowing a strand of her hair out of her eyes. Then, her eyes narrow, even though they're still larger than the average human's when she does so. "You _are _him, right?"

Jack can't nod quickly enough, or enthusiastically enough. "Yeah. That's me."

"I knew it," she breathes out, and with that, she shoves her drawing into his hand, smiling proudly as she sticks her finger to the focal point of the first. In the drawing, it's clearly nighttime, but there's a large, white circle in the center of it, and then, there's the silhouette of someone – no, not just someone, _him, _Jack Frost – flying in the night sky. There are little yellow spots scattered along the paper and Jack assumes they're the floating lights that she has such a fascination with.

"I saw you," she murmured shyly, rocking back and forth on her heels as Jack stares at the drawing. "Last night. It was my birthday, you know. The lights always come out on my birthday. And then I saw you flying with them this year." As if Jack couldn't tell, she points a chubby finger again at the miniscule Jack Frost. "That's you."

He doesn't know how she could tell it was him from such a distance, but he doesn't question it. He adjusts himself so that he's sitting now, back against the wall, and he can't seem to look away from the drawing. That was exactly what he had been doing the night before. He had been flying amongst the lights. After all, he had the best seat in the house – in the air, right along with them.

"This is incredible," Jack says, finally looking up at the girl. She beams, her tiny little teeth showing, sparkling. Tooth would be happy to know that this girl is keeping her smile clean.

"What are they like?" She asks. Jack looks down at her, realizing that she's sat beside him, mirroring his Indian-style crossed legs.

"The lights?"

At this, her eyes brighten a little. "They're not stars?"

Jack laughs. "Stars don't fly, kiddo."

This newfound information processes in her mind, and she seems confused for a moment. But then her excitement is back as she scoots to sit in front of him. "Tell me about them."

Honestly, Jack didn't know much about them. He just knows that they happen once a year, apparently on this kid's birthday. He doesn't know why. So he gives her the best description that he can. "It starts with one, right? And then they all come afterwards, all at once. At first, you kind of think you're going to get swallowed by this giant wave of golden light." He laughs because it reminds him of Sandy. "Then you sort of just relax and just let them bump into you and wash over you and it's one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen."

Her hands are supporting her head as she gazes at him with rapt attention. "Wow."

He grins. "Yeah."

Then she asks a different question. "Why is your hair white?"

It takes him aback. "I'd like to think it's more of a blondish color –"

She cocks one eyebrow at him and he's immediately jealous because he's been trying to master that for years. "My hair's blonde. Yours is _white._" She edges closer to him. "You're not old enough for white hair."

He smirks. "Kiddo, I'm plenty old enough for white hair."

She shakes her head. "You're younger than my mom, and she's still got black hair."

He's seen her mom before but he's not about to say that. "Oh."

"How old are you?"

He doesn't say how old he really is. "Eighteen."

"How come your skin is so cold?"

"Because I'm Jack Frost."

"Do you get cold? Like shivery and teeth chattering kind of cold?" She rubs her arms and clicks her teeth together in a pantomime of this.

"Nah," Jack laughs, twirling his staff over his head. "It's always warm for me."

"How come you can fly?"

Pause. "I don't know."

"Can you make it snow?"

Jack snaps. Little flakes fall from the ceiling even though it's the middle of spring and nearing summer. She grins as Pascal dodges them frantically before finally taking refuge underneath her hair. "Cool."

He waves his hand, clearing up the snow, which Pascal looks relieved at. "You're welcome."

She looks at him, smiling softly. "I'm Rapunzel."

He blinks. _"What?" _

"Ra-pun-zel." She enunciates each syllable as if it'll make Jack understand her better. And it does. Kind of.

But still, he stares at her. "Seriously?"

Rapunzel doesn't know how to respond to that. But she doesn't really have to, because some woman is outside shrieking for Rapunzel to let down her hair (even though Jack knows that her hair is nowhere near long enough to reach the ground). Jack is up before Rapunzel, and he grabs his staff as he hears her mom laugh to herself as if she just told some hilarious joke. He's back on the windowsill, but Rapunzel tugs on the cuff of his pants.

"You'll come back, won't you?"

He just gives her a smile and jumps. He hears her gasp and he rotates in the air, just long enough for her to see that he's okay, and then the tower door bangs open and Rapunzel's mother is reprimanding her for the mess of pain that she's left on the floor.

When Rapunzel glances back towards the window, he's gone.

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**Authoress's Note: Wow. It's been a while, huh? I'm not too sure how long this will be, to be honest, so I might keep it as a one-shot or write more to it. Reviews would be mucho appreciated either way.**


	2. Chapter 2

Jack doesn't come back for years and years. He thinks about visiting her sometimes – _a lot, _actually– but he never follows through with it. Not until he's flying aimlessly around one night, the full moon shining brightly and lighting the way for him, and he finds himself in her open window.

Upon landing, he steps inside the room before recognizing it. He's about to leave, fly away, when a frying pan comes whizzing at him out of nowhere. He lets out a startled yelp and just barely manages to duck, feeling it graze through his hair.

And so, he does the first thing that he can think of – he grabs the wrist of his attacker. It's thin, and when whoever it is lets out an indignant screech, Jack can tell that it's a girl.

"Let go of me!" she shrieks. Suddenly, she's nose-to-nose with him, and Jack can see angry, huge, olive-green eyes.

He lets go. She seems surprised, but she stumbles away, reaching for the frying pan that has fallen to the ground. Jack doesn't think about it when he freezes the pan to the floor with a harsh, "Don't even _think _about it, Princess."

Rapunzel looks up again, not quite scared but not completely calm, either. "What are you doing here?"

Something clicks in Jack's mind. "You can still see me."

It comes out more as a statement than a question. Rapunzel looks at him strangely. From the glow of the moonlight, Jack can see Pascal cowered on her shoulder, peeking out at him through her hair.

"You're…" she trails off as she stares at him, and Jack can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of déjà vu as her voice lowers to almost a whisper. "...Jack Frost."

"And you're Rapunzel," Jack replies, leaning slightly on his cane, surveying her. She's grown. _A lot. _Momentarily, he's shocked, not quite sure what to say. His voice is lost in his throat for a few moments, but then he recovers enough to smoothly say, "How old are you now, fifteen?"

She doesn't look fifteen – she looks quite a bit older than that. Not much, though. If Jack had to guess, he'd say she's around eighteen now. She bristles at that, and Jack can't help but smirk because _hey, _pissing people off is what he does best and enjoys most. "I'm seventeen."

He was mentally one year off. "I was close," Jack argues.

She doesn't seem to care about how _close _he was or not. Now, her head's tilted to the side, and she's looking at him curiously. "You don't look different at all."

Jack tries to do the math in his head. She couldn't have been very old when he visited her the first time. Maybe four, or five – which means it's been twelve or thirteen years since he's seen her last. And therefore, he should look like he's thirty or so.

But he doesn't. He still looks eighteen. Just like he has for the past three hundred or so years.

"That's what happens when you're Jack Frost, Princess," Jack makes his way around her, looking around at her walls. There are more paintings now, and they're far nicer than the kid-drawings that he'd seen before. "When you're a legend, you don't grow older."

"You didn't come back," she finally finds something to murmur, and Jack hears the hurt in her voice. He winces at the tone in her voice, so he focuses his attention to something – _anything – _else, even more so than he had been doing before. He notices how the moon catches light onto the little dots of yellow on the walls, making it seem as if they're glowing, somehow.

"Actually, I did," he points out. "I'm here now."

"You know what I mean, Jack."

"I didn't break any promises." And it's true, because he really did never say whether or not he would return. "Did I say that I would come back?"

Rapunzel fumbles over her words a little. "Well, no, but –"

"Don't try to make me feel guilty about it, then," he snaps, ignoring as Pascal glares at him and makes a threatening gesture with his hands – claws? Paws? Well, whatever those things are called. "And get your lizard to stop looking at me like that."

Rapunzel places her hand over Pascal protectively. "He's a _chameleon." _

"Chameleon, lizard, skink, gecko – they're all the same thing." Jack smirks as he sees Pascal stiffen on Rapunzel's shoulder. "I was gonna guess frog."

Rapunzel narrows her eyes, and she subconsciously tosses her hair behind her shoulder, which draws Jack's attention. He follows the trail over her shoulder, seeing as it wraps around the room, winds into the shafts above their heads, and comes back down – several times. And she can _still move. _

"What the _hell_," Jack nearly whispers, and before he knew it, he was at her side, running a hand through a tiny portion of her hair. She slaps his hand, and he draws away, mouth agape in shock.

"What?" she snaps.

"What do you mean, _what?" _he repeats back to her, tugging on her hair lightly – not so much that she'll actually feel pain, but enough that she'll definitely be able to feel it. "Your _hair." _

He's kind of sputtering, stammering, stumbling over his words, and as embarrassing as it is, he can't bring himself to care because _holy shit that is A LOT of hair. _

"Oh," Rapunzel – wait, is she _blushing? _– says, suddenly softening quite a bit. Then some sort of realization seems to dawn upon her, and she steps away from him. "So that's why you're here, then?"

It's Jack's turn to be dumbfounded. "Huh?"

"My _hair," _she says in a scarily accurate impression of his voice. "You want my hair. Is that it? Is that why you've finally showed up again?"

He almost laughs. "Why in the world would I want your hair?"

Rapunzel blinks. "Why wouldn't you?"

"You're flattering yourself, Princess," Jack shakes his head, using his focus to create a mini-snowstorm in the palm of his hand.

"I am _not-" _

"I don't care about your hair," he cuts her off before she can get too out of hand. "I mean, yeah, it's pretty, and it's freakishly long, but I have no use for it. It's just…hair."

Apparently, it's not _just hair, _and Rapunzel gets really, really angry when you say something like that. Before long, she's spouting shit about magical healing powers and singing and Jack has half a mind to freeze her in an ice cube in order to shut her up.

"You're not making any sense," he says when she's calmed down for the most part. He half expects that to set her off again, but it doesn't. Instead, she sort of deflates, right into a puddle on her floor.

"Why are you here?" she asks, nearly whispers, and Jack pauses for a moment, wondering why the fight's suddenly drained out of her.

"I don't know," he says honestly. He even braves a step forwards, taking comfort in the fact that she doesn't shrink away. She doesn't say anything for a long, long time, and so, he takes it upon himself to break the deafening silence. "I didn't think you'd still be here."

She sighs as Pascal crawls down to her knee. "It's not like I have a choice."

"Yeah, you do." Jack argues. Rapunzel tilts her face back up to him, brushes her hair out of her eyes, and Jack is momentarily stunned by how _pretty _she's gotten. "You always have a choice."

That childish look of complete and utter belief flits across her face and Jack knows that she hasn't changed much from the awestruck four-year-old he met so long ago.

"Rapunzel," he continues, sitting in front of her. "What exactly is it that you want?"

She stops for a moment, blinking at him in what looks like confusion. "I don't want to _stay _here."

She looks up at him hopefully, and he gets the hint. "Wait, do you want me to take you?"

"Well," she murmurs, looking down at Pascal, who's shaking his head adamantly. "It's my birthday in a week. And I want to see the floating lights."

Jack smiles a little, because it reminds him a little about how obsessed she was with them before. "I'll take you."

She brightens up. "You will?"

"Do you trust me?"

Her face falls. "No, I don't."

It's a valid point, because he hasn't done anything to do anything to earn her trust. "Alright, Princess. Tell you what. I'll come back and I'll take you to go see those lights of yours."

The thought makes a small, beautiful smile appear on her face. He knows he has to keep this promise.

And he does. A couple of days before her birthday, he comes back, all smiles and ready to take her on an adventure of a lifetime. Only, he doesn't. He _can't, _since she's already gone.

He sees the sparkle of something underneath the floorboards. It takes him a while, but he manages to open it. And there's a tiara there, hidden in a satchel.

There's a part of him that thinks he might want to take it. It might be valuable. Ultimately, though, he puts it back and flies away.

* * *

**Authoress's Note: You guys asked for another chapter, so hopefully this meets your expectations?**

**Reviews would be much appreciated.**


	3. Chapter 3

Not much time passes before Jack sees Rapunzel again after her disappearance. In fact, it's not much time _at all _– less than a full day later, he spots her through the leaves of the trees as he's flying back to her tower to check if she's come back. Because, even though he won't admit it to a single person, he's kind of worried about her.

Only he doesn't actually see her. He just sees her hair. It's like a tiny gold thread interwoven into the shrubbery. It catches Jack's eye and he wonders what it is that could look so golden, so clear, from so far up.

Obviously, being Jack, he goes down to investigate, even though he kind of already knows who it is beforehand. He bounces along the tips of the treetops, until he gets as close to her as possible. She's sitting on a rock in the middle of a forest, hand held in her palm as she stares off at nothingness.

Jack feels a little like an ape as he swings down from the branches as silently as possible. She doesn't notice until Jack goes onto the closest branch to her, grips it tightly between his legs, and swings upside down in front of her with a smirk on his face, laughing as she screams because that's the exact reaction that he wanted from her.

Though, he does feel a bit bad as she topples off the rock.

"Hey, Princess," he says, easily flipping feet first onto the ground and extends a hand towards her. "What're you doing out here?"

There's still a state of shock on her face as she places her hand in his and pulls herself up. "I-I'm going to see the floating lights!" Then she squints at him. "What are _you _doing here?"

He ignores her question as she releases him, nodding once towards a large white horse that is staring at him and nudges him, sniffing fiercely. "What's with the donkey?"

This offends the horse _greatly, _and he lifts his hooves up as if to strike at Jack, but Rapunzel puts a hand on his mane to calm him down.

"This is Max," she explains, stroking the horse's neck comfortingly as Pascal peeks out from her hair and uses her arm as a bridge to climb onto Max's head. "I'm not alone, okay?"

"No shit?" Jack says. "You've got a travelling circus and a half."

"Watch your language and be _nice_," she reprimands him. "There's a guy with us too."

He's about to suggest that she _might _be seeing things, but then she shrugs. "He's using the bathroom."

"He?" his eyes nearly pop out of his skull. "It's a _he?" _

"His name is Flynn Rider," Rapunzel informs him with such an aura of haughtiness that Jack actually rolls his eyes at her and Max looks displeased, huffing. "And he's taking me to the lights in return for –"

"Oh," Jack interrupts her. "Because you hid that crown thing underneath your floorboards, right?"

"You _found _it?"

Jack raises his hands above his head in mock-defense. "Hey, I put it back." His hands drop back down to his sides. "It was a good hiding spot, though. If I didn't have such a keen eye, I probably wouldn't have spotted it."

There's a small smile on Rapunzel's lips, like she's amused by this whole thing but not allowing it to show completely. She opens her mouth to retort when there's a shout of, "Hey, Blondie! I'm done. Olly olly oxen free!"

"Blondie?" Jack scoffs, already finding a sour taste in his mouth. "He calls you _Blondie?" _

Rapunzel sends him a look, brushing past him. "You call me Princess."

"That's completely different!" Jack says, following her as she weaves her way through the trees towards where ever this _Flynn Rider _guy was taking a dump. When the other man comes into view, Jack blinks a few times, crossing his arms and surveying him.

Flynn Rider doesn't even notice, his eyes grazing over Jack as if he isn't even there (which he isn't), and landing on Rapunzel. Jack stiffens even more. He hates being reminded that he's invisible to most people.

He grunts, "I don't like him."

Max doesn't either, apparently, because he neighs in agreement.

Rapunzel seems to remember that he's standing right there, especially as he picks a twig out of her golden locks, and she elbows him in the gut, ignoring Jack's hiss of pain. "You don't even know him!"

Jack notices how Flynn Rider's eyebrow rises as it appears to him that she's talking to thin air. He can't help the smile that appears on his lips – until he realizes that Rapunzel doesn't understand that she's the only person to date that has the ability to see him. He shakes his head, tries to tell her to stop without saying anything, but that just confuses her further.

"What are you _doing?" _she snaps, an edge of annoyance and exasperation leaking into her voice. Flynn Rider looks alarmed now, and he coughs.

"Uh – who are you talking to?" he asks as Jack dips his head because he figured it out. Rapunzel looks at Flynn Rider as if he's the crazy one there. Which he might be. Jack hadn't gotten a clear judgment of character yet.

"Jack," she says slowly, then brightens. "Oh! I haven't introduced you two. Jack, this is Flynn. Flynn, this is Jack. _Frost," _she adds with an afterthought as if that will be more impressive.

Flynn, however, is the exact opposite. "This is great," he gripes. "I'm travelling with a lizard –"

_"Chameleon," _Jack corrects with a snap, and Pascal swings his head over to Jack and – _Christ - _smiles gratefully.

"- a girl with a thousand feet of hair –"

"Only seventy."

"- a horse that wants me dead. –"

Max glares and bares his teeth menacingly.

"- _and, _to top it all off, your imaginary friend that you based off of a kid's story."

Jack grips his staff tightly and a patch of ice forms on the ground around it. Hastily, he stomps it away, the feel of slush crunching underneath him calming him slightly.

"What?" Rapunzel says softly, fingers finding Jack's sleeve and tugging lightly. "No – no. He's right here, Flynn."

"There's _no one _there."

"But –" Rapunzel seems utterly scandalized, looking over at Jack, who's head is bowed towards his feet. "- I don't understand."

She's speaking more to Jack than anyone else. Jack clears his throat and mumbles, "Don't look at me and I'll explain."

"What?" she's whispering now so that Flynn won't think she's crazy – though he still does, because he rolls his eyes and says, "Gossiping with people only _you _can see is rude, you know."

"Just – pretend you can't see me."

Rapunzel doesn't say anything for a moment, but that's all the confirmation that Jack needs in order to know that she's listening to his orders. She forces a smile onto her face, laughing airily. "I thought that there was a ghost in the forest so I named him Jack," she explains without enthusiasm. She walks towards him. Jack walks with her. The animals remain behind.

They really are a circus and a half.

Flynn is silent as they walk along. Rapunzel pinches at Jack's bicep, playing it off as a simple stretch, and sends him a quick glare that just _screams _"explain. Now."

And so, he does - from the moment he broke through the ice to the moment their walking together.

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**Review, please.**


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